Has anyone done a custom install of Genesis 2

scottidog2

Has anyone done a custom install of Genesis 2 instead of using DIM?
If so how have you organised the folders and files?

My V4 folder structure consists of many folders.
Just my V4 clothing is split into 10 different folders.
ie
Clothing - V4 - Day
Clothing - V4 - Evening
Clothing - V4 - Fantasy
Clothing - V4 - Sci-Fi
Clothing - V4 - Swimwear
Clothing - V4 - Sexy

I like to categorise everything according what they are.

Like to do the same with Genesis 2.
Any advice would be appreciated for custom install, not using DIM.

Dartanbeck

It might work, using DIM or not. Then again, it might be more apt to cough up errors.
If you don't like using DIM, then I'd imagine you would just have to make sure to be careful when updates come out, etc.,
But if you don't mind using DIM, I would suggest making all of these categories using DIM.

I'm not sure how it works, because I've never actually tried it. But I think that DAZ Studio has a built in method for creating your own custom categories. I just wonder if any of that is useable as such in Carrara?

Sorry I'm not much help here.

scottidog2

Dartanbeck, thank you for your response.
I will have to look into it.

Bratpiper

Don't come here very often, but to add my own experience...

I Have handled Poser much as you say for years. Carrara loads Poser stuff fine from the Poser folders but I never wanted to use Genesis in Poser. I basically installed Daz Studio (since it's free) just for converting older stuff to duf format for use in Carrara. I never trusted DIM because of all the early issues reported about it. And again, I wanted to control my own folders just like you since it makes for simplicity in use.

I have several Poser Libraries and one Daz Library on a separate hard drive (H:), the Programs are on D: drive, and Windows 8.1 pro on C: To install a new Genesis 1/2 item You must keep to the basic Daz Folder structure i.e. Library_Daz\data, \people, \runtime, etc. (actually you can leave out \runtime\support files if not using DIM). Now below these top headings you can sort or rename folders much as with Poser libraries but with one major caveat that I will now explain (the main reason I responded to this thread).

From experience, even if you install files as they come in the manually downloaded zips, you will often get errors in Carrara! What basically happens is you click a pose or figure and instead of it loading in Carrara, you just get a meaningless message "an error has occurred" nothing else. when this happens, open up the duf executable file in something like notepad++ (you may have to unzip it first if it's compressed) and you will find the near the very top of the file there is an address line pointing to the duf file itself. If that address is incorrect you will get the error message and no execution! I don't know how this affects Daz Studio because I don't use it generally, but many Daz downloads have initial errors in this address line and they DO affect Carrara.

Now perhaps you will see from this that if you structure your Daz Library to suit your own layout, all you need to do is edit that one line in each of the duf files to reflect your own structure. A tip here, if you don't use Notepad++ you should, because it has excellent batch file capabilities. You can load in a whole folder of duf files and change this address line in every file in one operation, and then one more button click to save all files. Oh, and it's freeware.

Knowing the above, just experiment, that's all I did and I'm quite happy managing my own Genesis stuff.

Dartanbeck

That is awesome, Bratpiper! Thanks for that advice!
One thing though... the Runtime folder is still used, but for only one thing - texture images. So don't ignore the Runtime > Textures folder! ;)

Currently, I just install all of my Genesis 1 & 2 to a single directory, simply because the different way that the DS library is structured, is has, so far, been an easy experience, once I've learned that everything I need is in the People folder or Animal folder for Big Cat, etc.,

But I can see where, if I end up with a huge collection, I might want to change that. With that batch conversion feature... yeah... sounds like a great way to go!

scottidog2

Very useful advice indeed. Thank You very much Bratpiper for your advice.

3DAGE

HI Scottidog :)

You can do custom installs with DIM.

Dim is also updated to the latest version automatically. when you run it.
You can work Off-Line using DIM to "Manage" your installations
You can use DIM to download your products,. but Not to install them automatically to the default (studio library),. .
You can create folders, and install your content, where you want it. (if you understand what you're doing)
You can "Filter" for products, EG: V4 (for everything containing V4 in the title).

When you use Dim to install a product, any updates for that product, will automatically be installed to wherever that product is located.
it's also easier to uninstall using dim,. since "filtering" allows you to select a Bunch of items and uninstall or install.

BUT.

Products are designed to work when they're installed into a specific set of folders, so renaming folders or files is normally not a good idea.

It's better to install the product into the folder structure they were designed to be "working" in, and use "Categories" which are "Virtual folders" where you can drag different content to customise it into different categories. (in Daz Studio)
Because the folders are "virtual",. you're not actually moving any real files around.

Hope it helps :)

scottidog2

Good to see you back in the Carrara Community 3DAGE. Thank You. Everything helps!

3DAGE

Thanks scottidog2 :)

It's nice to be back :)